Frank La Rue

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2. Measuring Progress Against Stubborn Reality

In November 2013, the United Nations General Assembly put the issue of impunity squarely on the global agenda.

The Resolution on Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, adopted by consensus, describes the absence of justice for victims as “one of the main challenges to strengthening the protection of journalists.” It calls on states to “ensure accountability through the conduct of impartial, speedy, and effective investigations into all alleged violence against journalists and media workers falling within their jurisdiction.” Governments are further charged to “bring the perpetrators of such crimes to justice and to ensure that victims have access to appropriate remedies.” The resolution proclaims November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

3. Where Impunity Thrives

A climate of impunity reached a tragic culmination on November 23, 2009, when gunmen ambushed a caravan escorting political candidate Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu as he prepared to file papers to become a candidate for provincial governor in the Philippines. The attackers slaughtered 58 people, among them 30 journalists and two media workers, the largest toll of journalists murdered in a single act since CPJ began keeping track in 1992.

Top African and U.S. leaders are meeting next week in Washington in a first-of-its-kind summit focused on African development. But critics argue the summit is flawed in design, overlooking human rights such as freedom of expression and barring civil society actors from bilateral discussions.

For the second time this year, the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of protection of journalists. In a discussion today sponsored by the French and Guatemalan delegations, and open to NGOs, speaker after speaker and country after country hammered home the same essential facts: The vast majority of journalists murdered around the world are local reporters working in their own country, covering human rights, corruption, conflict and politics. In nine out of ten of these murders, no one is ever prosecuted.

During a meeting with CPJ, and representatives from Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders at the president's
executive office in Montevideo, the political capital, the former member of the
leftist guerrilla group Tupamaros reflected on the upcoming congressional
debate over new broadcast legislation. "It is our duty to ensure universal
access to radio and television and contribute to freedom of information,"
Mujica added.

On June 21, Macedonian journalists, intellectuals, artists,
and free thinkers breathed a sigh of relief. The U.N. special rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression,
Frank La Rue, visited Skopje and held one of the most straightforward and
honest press conferences on the state of freedom of the media we had seen in
years. La Rue's fact-finding mission concluded
that even though the Macedonian legal framework for media freedom is
satisfactory, its politicized practice raises serious concerns. Here are some
points the rapporteur highlighted:

After inspecting a hydroelectric project in
northern Ecuador last year, President Rafael Correa complained about the scant
press coverage of his visit and suggested it was part of a media blackout. "Did
the Ecuadoran media conspire to ignore this important event? It seems like that
is the case," Correa told the crowd at a
town hall meeting. "In this country, good news is not news."

No other journalists are remembered quite like this. Visitors
looking through the glass display at the Monsignor
Romero Center & Martyrs Museum in San Salvador see the pajamas and
other clothes that three Jesuit university priests were wearing when they were shot
down by automatic rifle fire. A series of clear containers are filled with dark
blades of grass cut from the campus lawn where each had spilled his blood.

CPJ ranks North Korea, with no independent media, as the
world's most censored state. South Korea, with a wide-open press, seldom
comes in for criticism. The high-tech, economic powerhouse is ranked as one of the most intensely
wired nations in the world, and South Koreans enjoy near universal Internet
access. But all is not well with the media on the southern half of the Korean
peninsula.